Here stands a conduit containing a veritable mishmash of varied topics and thoughts dedicated to the raw musings that somehow manage to pop into the heads of two Random Plebeians in American society...One's abroad. One's not. Both try to avoid getting angry and cynical.

28 November 2013

On Thanksgiving...

It's long been said that Thanksgiving ought to be a time to spend with family and to be grateful for what we do have in life. But in the modern day, this meaning has been watered down to the point where many, if not most, of us simply pay it "lip service." Instead, we focus on:

-Football games involving people getting paid gobs of money just for wearing tights and throwing a ball
-Shopping for cheap baubles made by wage slaves in the Third World just so we can supposedly impress relatives and "keep up with the Joneses"
-Eat obscene amounts of food when people in other parts of the globe (including many children) are dropping dead of starvation, and the United States is grappling with widespread obesity.

Then there is the controversy of major U.S. retailers remaining open throughout the holiday, thus forcing many people who don't make a lot of money to have to work and miss out on a holiday lest they lose their jobs. And for what? So that some corporate executive can profit and some other bloke can beat other people to a pulp just to get his hands on the latest video-game console, must-have toy, or some other "bargain" that the medias and Madison Avenue bleat that we should have?

Ironically, our obsessions with football, "Black Friday" shopping, and absurdly-large meals don't promote or show gratitude--rather, it exposes just how ungrateful and narcissistic our society has become.

We here at RP think that America has lost sight of the true meaning of Thanksgiving. It is time we did something about it, and that "something" starts with each of us.